In optical data storage cards, reliability and ease of reading the data are important. Data may be recorded in an office environment, but need to be read in a dirty environment or when no card reading machine is available, such as in an emergency. For example, medical-record cards should be readable in an ambulance, at the scene of an accident, or on a battlefield. In such conditions, it may be difficult or impossible to read digitally recorded data on a card or paper copies in a file.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,329 to Gokey et al., an information retrieval system includes a microfiche data base of two types of microfiche cards. One type is machine readable only, while the other has both machine readable and visually readable information. This information cannot be updated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,332, Domo discloses a medical record card containing a microfilm portion having some data visible to the eye and other data visible by magnification. The directly visible data is alphanumeric character codes pertaining to emergency medical conditions of the patient and the magnifiable data portions detail the medical history. This information cannot be updated.
An object of the invention is to provide a method and system for recording laser written information on a card that can be visually read by a person with the help of magnifying optics.
It is another object of the invention to provide a card in which visually read information can be recorded in place on the card.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and system for updating information on a wallet-size card that can be read visually by a person.